Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Pickin Boogers! & Eating Them!!!

Did you know???people who pick their noses with their fingers are healthier, happier, and more in tune with their bodies. His argument stems from the notion that exposing the body to the dried germ corpses helps to reinforce the immune system. The good doctor feels that society should adopt a new approach to nose-picking, and encourage children to take up the habit.

Dr. Bischinger has been quoted as saying (in an Austrian accent), "With the finger you can get to places you just can't reach with a handkerchief, keeping your nose far cleaner. And eating the dry remains of what you pull out is a great way of strengthening the body's immune system." He then added, "Medically it makes great sense and is a perfectly natural thing to do. In terms of the immune system the nose is a filter in which a great deal of bacteria are collected, and when this mixture arrives in the intestines it works just like a medicine."

"Modern medicine is constantly trying to do the same thing through far more complicated methods, people who pick their nose and eat it get a natural boost to their immune system for free."

This theoretical boost comes from the fact that boogers are chock full of bacteria which your body has shuttled out by way of mucus. Mucus lines many of the pathways into the body's delicate innards, and creates a surface which is like flypaper for bacteria and other particles. Once stuff becomes mired in the goo, the loaded mucus is slowly escorted out by tiny hairs called cilia which sweep the undesirables back out the door. In regards to the nose, when this exiting mucus becomes dry, boogers are produced.

In mankind's caveman times - it would not have been strange to spend an evening sitting around with friends and sampling each other's boogers. It sounds disgusting - but its simply part of our instinctual primate grooming behaivors that have only recently been repressed through collective social training.

It has been speculated that the reason why humans have become so susceptible to viruses and bacterial infections in the last 500 years or so is indeed, because we have lost this beneficial, immune system strengthening behaivor.

The body even naturally encourages the formation of a dense, salty coating to the boogers to make them more palatable. There is no other known reason for the high salt content in the mucus in the nose.